Welcome to our new digital home.

We hope you enjoy exploring this new site — designed to make our 15-year archive more hospitable and accessible. And if you want to stay in touch with our latest podcasts, writings, live events, and more, sign up for The Pause, our Saturday morning newsletter.

“Trunk or treats” are happening in church parking lots across the country in an attempt to make #Halloween rituals safer and less scary. On upholding the macabre lineage of All Hallows’ Eve — and welcoming both the risks and rewards of neighborliness.

A reflection acknowledging that the injustice of suffering can't be wrapped up in a neat bow of closure. Instead, we the author looks to her culture’s understanding of ancestry — in the responsibility we have to the loved ones we’ve lost.

A tender, empathetic, and honest letter to an unknown friend about the anguish of grief — through a story of young love, the loss of a child, and the realization that pain marks an opening to a future where new life can take root.

Witnessing the faint smile of her dying mother, the daughter of Haitian-Creole parents reflects on why she's been writing about death and grief ever since — and the cathartic edge of the Book of Revelation and C.S. Lewis.

It can feel painful to reflect on our mortality — especially the mortality of our loved ones. But maybe embracing the reality of death can help us to fear it less, and appreciate the wonder of life all the more.

If you could speak to a passed friend or family member, what would you say? An exploration of the healing that can happen when we stay in relationship with the ones we love, even beyond the end of life

To embrace life despite the truth of suffering is an audacious act. Jennifer Michael Hecht guides us through Albert Camus on the myth of Sisyphus, as a reassuringly contrary argument for life over death.

Our culture has a profound discomfort with walking openly through grief. An exploration of the healing power of companionship and openness after loss — embodied in groundbreaking gatherings for millennials longing to heal together.

The Pause

Step away from the week with us.

The Pause is our Saturday morning newsletter, a gathering of threads from the far-flung, ongoing conversation that is The On Being Project. Stay up to date with our latest podcasts, writings, live events, and more.